znotes 0.8.1

A multimodal notes management system with semantic search and automatic linking

BH (Black Hole)

BH is the primary CLI for this repo: a capture-first, markdown-first notes + todos system.

Core ideas:

• Streams: hierarchical categories like inbox, work/bh, clients/acme.
• Items: notes and todos are stored as folders with content.md, metadata.json, and attachments/.
• Multimodal ingest: text, files, directories; voice notes can be transcribed.
• Access: browse/search by stream, generate briefs/digests, and build completionist index docs.
• Provenance + cost tracking: attachments are hashed and referenced; external calls are logged.

Install / Run (uv)

uv sync
uv run bh status

If you prefer the venv:

source .venv/bin/activate
bh status

Configuration

BH reads config from <base-path>/.notes_config.json (default <base-path> is ~/.notes).

Example:

{
  "embedding_provider": {"type": "openai", "model": "text-embedding-3-small"},
  "tagger": {"type": "openai", "model": "gpt-4o-mini"},
  "transcriber": {"type": "whisper", "model": "whisper-1"},
  "llm": {"model": "gpt-5-mini"}
}

Environment:

• OPENAI_API_KEY (required for OpenAI embeddings/tagging/transcription)
• OPENAI_API_BASE (optional; defaults to https://api.openai.com/v1)

CLI Cheatsheet

All commands support --base-path (defaults to ~/.notes).

Capture:

uv run bh add "stray idea about energy markets" --stream inbox
uv run bh new --stream work/bh                 # open $EDITOR to write markdown

uv run bh add path/to/voice.m4a --stream work/bh
uv run bh add path/to/voice.m4a --no-transcribe

uv run bh add path/to/folder --stream inbox    # ingests one item per file
uv run bh create-bh path/to/folder --follow --interval 30 --stream inbox

Access:

uv run bh search "fusion breakthroughs" --mode semantic --stream work
uv run bh browse --sort modified --stream work/bh
uv run bh show <item-id>
uv run bh open <item-id>
uv run bh link <item-id>

Todos:

uv run bh todo add "Ship v1" --due 2026-01-14 --stream work/bh
uv run bh todo list --status open --stream work
uv run bh todo done <todo-id>
uv run bh todo archive <todo-id>

Proactive (writes notes under the hood):

uv run bh proactive todo --scope all --stream work/bh
uv run bh proactive brief --scope new --stream work/bh
uv run bh digest --scope new --stream work/bh

Completionist docs:

uv run bh completion stream work/bh

Costs:

uv run bh cost daily --days 7
uv run bh cost events --day 2026-01-14 --limit 50

Storage layout

Default base path is ~/.notes (override via --base-path):

<base-path>/
  .notes_config.json
  notes/
    <item-id>/
      content.md
      metadata.json
      attachments/
  .notes_db/
    search.db       # SQLite FTS5
    embeddings.npy  # semantic index
    graph.json      # auto-link graph
    bh_state.json   # watched folders + last runs
    bh.db           # provenance + cost ledger (SQLite)
    tmp/            # editor scratch files

More details: docs/black-hole.md.

Development

uv run pytest -q

Notes:

• bh is the supported UX. znote still exists but is considered legacy.
• Some cost entries may be unknown if usage metadata isn’t available; pricing lookup lives in src/notes/costs.py.